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Frank Chen

China’s aviation authorities have mobilised a range of resources to support European certification of the C919, the home-grown airliner aiming to take on Boeing and Airbus, with steady progress made in recent months, multiple sources said.
Technicians and pilots from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have set up shop in Shanghai for more checks and in-flight tests in recent months, according to a source who took part in some technological exchanges with the agency.
“They now stay in Shanghai, like almost permanently, for tests and flights,” the source said.
It is understood that the European watchdog is requiring more test flights to prove the C919’s safety. Such flights mark the third phase of a four-stage certification process.
The first flight tests were conducted in November, a milestone in Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China’s (Comac) multi-year effort to acquire Western endorsement for the Chinese jet, with a view to capturing overseas market share from the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 duopoly.
The source said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) had been rallying support from airlines, including their top pilots, to aid the certification push.
A second source with knowledge of ongoing arrangements said Comac and Chinese airlines operating the C919 were providing past and real-time data to EASA. China Eastern Airlines had also shared repair and maintenance data, they said, including those accumulated from periodical A and B checks on the first batch of C919s that joined its fleet in 2023. A and B checks are standardised, scheduled inspections of an aircraft’s safety performance.
The single-aisle aircraft has been operating domestically since May 2023, with China’s big-three carriers, Air China, China Eastern and China Southern Airlines, increasing their use of the plane.
The C919 had served a combined four million passengers on 46 routes by the end of last year, according to CAAC. During the 40-day Chinese New Year travel boom between February and March, it operated 4,300 flights, more than double the number a year ago.
The nearly three years’ worth of data from domestic commercial operations might help with EASA’s analysis, the second source said, adding that the agency had visited a plant in Shanghai where the plane is assembled.
Though flight tests can be seen as the “final exam”, they have to be followed by analysis, paperwork and technical verification.
Both sources said they believed “political considerations” could be hindering quicker certification, because the C919 contained key parts from mainstream Western suppliers and had already demonstrated its safety in years of domestic use.
In that vein, they added that China’s recent string of orders for Airbus aircraft might help.
The European aviation giant has secured Chinese orders for more than 200 A320s since last year.
A third source briefed on the certification process said overall work was “advancing in an orderly manner” but still required time and effort.
“We need to make continuous efforts … it’s still ongoing,” he said.
In a setback for Comac, EASA executive director Florian Guillermet said about a year ago that it would be certifying the jet within three to six years, torpedoing hopes of an imminent breakthrough.


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Flight tests a ‘final exam’ to be followed by analysis, paperwork and technical verification, but ‘political considerations’ also in play


Flight tests a ‘final exam’ to be followed by analysis, paperwork and technical verification, but ‘political considerations’ also in play.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Flight tests a ‘final exam’ to be followed by analysis, paperwork and technical verification, but ‘political considerations’ also in play

Flight tests a ‘final exam’ to be followed by analysis, paperwork and technical verification, but ‘political considerations’ also in play